For some reason when I ran the second step to install i386 packages I received a pre-dependency error. when I try to run apt-get -f install it attempts to install libgcc1:i386. Then I get a predepencency error saying libgcc1:i386 pre-depends on multiarch-support multiarch-support is unpacked, but has never been configured.

For some reason when I ran the second step to install i386 packages I received a pre-dependency error. when I try to run apt-get -f install it attempts to install libgcc1:i386. Then I get a predepencency error saying libgcc1:i386 pre-depends on multiarch-support multiarch-support is unpacked, but has never been configured.

I have seen someone else with this problem. Apparently the following fixed it for them:

Thank you for the fix. I am some what of a noob to linux and was scared I was going to have to re-install. I am glad that as soon as I got an invite to this beta people already had fixes for installing on debian posted.

Your code is the second time I tried to install steam, but I used apt-get purge steam to remove it before I installed this. But now when I try to use your run code I get this error in the steam window after it updated:

However, this won't work as it is when running a 64bits Debian, and the given "fix" hides the problem without fixing it. You should NOT install "multiarch-support:i386" since (again, on 64bits) this will conflict with "multiarch-support" and remove it (which is bad).

Instead, simply add the i386 architecture using dpkg (that's the point of the multiarch support).

dpkg --add-architecture i386

Then install all the i386 packages except "multiarch-support:i386".

This seems to work very well on Debian 7 Wheezy beta, which is frozen and way more stable than sid, but I still have to try to effectively play a game (currently downloading...).

jockey-common depends on python-xkit, and is only used for changing the X11 configuration anyway (installing nvidia-drivers for instance). There is no need to do that on a well configured system. So I'd rather build a fake package with equivs or ignore it altogether.

How does steam check if the packages are installed ? Does I check if the .deb is installed or only if it can find the libraries ?Because as far as I can tell it doesn't look like steam is using the libraries form the Ubuntu packages. Since I have libc6 from the experimental repo I only need libjpeg-turbo8 and jockey-common.But steam keeps complaining about libjpeg-turbo8 and jockey-common needed to be installed:

Package jockey-common needs to be installedPackage libjpeg-turbo8:i386 needs to be installed

Besides since yesterday's update it pops-up a terminal with

sudo apt-get install jockey-common libjpeg-turbo8:i386

executed. Which is quite annoying.Since I used to have steam installed without any library hack from Ubuntu packages and the same result, I was wondering if it's just me or if any one of you managed to run steam properly.

I suppose it checks for the libraries. Checking for installed packages is too error-prone. I do manage to run Steam on Debian using the above technique, ie. unpacking Ubuntu packages in a separate directory instead of actually installing them.